Restoring The Tower's Power

MIAMI — After much talk about renovating the Freedom Tower, one of Miami's historic landmarks, its owners are backing the promise with a $1 million donation.

The donation from the Jorge Mas Canosa Freedom Foundation comes two weeks after a local preservation group listed the 1925 downtown Miami tower at the top of its endangered historic sites list.

The Cuban-American National Foundation said the announcement is not a response to the Dade Heritage Trust's criticism over the tower's state of disrepair. The preservation group was not aware of plans under way to renovate and create a museum at the tower, said Fernando Rojas, spokesman for the CANF.

Jorge Mas Jr., the eldest son of late Cuban exile leader Jorge Mas Canosa, unveiled the tower's estimated $8 million to $10 million restoration plans on Wednesday and called for a community-wide fund-raising effort.

"This is a community project," Mas said. "Everyone wants to see the Freedom Tower be what it needs to be."

Jorge Mas Canosa and his family bought the tower at Biscayne Boulevard and Sixth Street for $4.2 million in September 1997, only a month before the exile leader's death.

The 17-story Mediterranean Revival tower has stood forgotten and decaying for many years, a haven for the homeless. It was a shocking decline for a building with such a memorable past for so many of the community's immigrants.

Between 1962 and 1974, it was a symbolic Statue of Liberty for almost a half-million Cubans who arrived in Miami fleeing the regime of communist President Fidel Castro. The tower, dubbed the "tropical Ellis Island," was used by the U.S. government as a Cuban refugee assistance and processing center.

Plans call for a museum exhibit that would chronicle the Cuban exile experience during the past 40 years, Mas said.

"The dream is for it to become a center of Cuban studies in the United States and this community," Mas said. "I want it to be an experience. I want it to touch people."

The stories of other immigrant communities, such as Haitians and Central Americans, would be an intricate part of the museum's exhibits, Mas said.

The museum's plans call for an investment of $20 million to $25 million, which will need to be raised locally and nationally, Mas said. The Freedom Tower Foundation was created to handle its financing.

Renovation work has started this month with preparations for a millennium lighting of the tower on Friday. For the first time since World War II, the tower's beacon will shine once again. Additional enhancements will be made until the full restoration efforts begin in January, said the project's architect, Raul L. Rodriguez.

The Mas family is interviewing several museum consultant firms to choose one that will design the exhibits. Museum plans include an auditorium, art gallery, interactive library and research center. The smaller spaces in the tower's upper floors will be used as museum offices, while the tower's crown will become lookout terraces, Rodriguez said.

A dedication ceremony is scheduled for February 2001.

The Freedom Tower was the home of Miami's first newspaper, the Miami Daily News and Metropolis, until 1957. The tower remained vacant until it was used to process and assist Cuban refugees.

After the government moved out, the building remained vacant until 1988, when a Saudi Arabian company opened it as a lavish dining hall. The company went bankrupt, leaving the property to deteriorate.

The building's continued state of disrepair prompted the city of Miami to fine its owners $250 per day since last August, said building inspector Israel Ibanez. The fines keep mounting, with today's amount totaling $29,750, IbaM-qez said.

But since Dec. 14, workers have been preparing the tower for what could be its next reincarnation.

One of the workers, Pedro Mesa, a roofer, didn't realize his job for the day would be at the place he was processed as a refugee when he came from Cuba 29 years ago with his wife and several relatives.